A review by onceuponacarm
Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia

5.0

As good as the first two. The Gaither head to Alabama to spend the summer with Big Ma and Ma Charles, across the creek from their cousin JimmyTrotter and his great grandma. The girls' relationships with each other are the main focus of the novel, as the family begins to change and Delphine is worried that things are falling apart and she is desperate to hold everything together. (She's also reading Things Fall Apart, which she is disappointed in because none of the characters are any good--I like that she said that, as I generally prefer stories with at least once character I really like. In the Gaither/Charles/Trotter/Johnson family, everyone does things they shouldn't, but that's what makes them come alive. There's no one "good" character, but I can honestly say I like them all, as I feel like I understand them. I haven't yet read Things Fall Apart, but I hope that's the case with that book, too, and that Delphine eventually finishes it and figures out that no one is perfect and everyone is just doing the best they can.) Vonetta steps up the theatrics, fueling the feud between her great-grandmother and her half sister. Fern reads Charlotte's Web on the bus ride south and is awakened to where meat comes from. She refuses to eat the Wilburs or chickens or cows, tearing up when she realizes what happens to her family's animals when they stop being useful or meat is on the menu. Vonetta picks on Fern mercilessly for this, while Delphine is extra harsh toward Vonetta in return. What's more, Uncle Darnell is back in the picture since he's living with Big Ma, but Vonetta refuses to forgive him for stealing from them in the last book. All this family feuding, plus the news of a new baby, comes to a head when disaster strikes.